Free Software, Free Society

It feels like every day this past year, we woke to news of an assault
on our freedoms engineered through software: companies pilfering from
our free software commons, device manufacturers remotely deleting
ebooks behind readers' backs, Big Media hatching new schemes for
digital restrictions and spying, and governments around the world
conspiring to expand and coordinate their digital subjugation of
citizens.

The word "community" gets bandied about, but in these times, it really
is important that we build professional and social solidarity around a
core set of ideals. It's critical that we hang together, both to
advance our positive ideas for a better world and to stop those trying
to turn software against its users.

Signing up as a member of the Free Software Foundation means joining a
growing society -- now over 3,000 members strong in 48 countries -- of
computer users, software engineers, hackers, students, and freedom
activists.

We offer some supporting benefits to help members of this society
improve their free software advocacy efforts: